Rep of the Month

This month, we are recognising Psychology Senior Course Rep, Claude Kumar, as Rep of the Month for December. We caught up with Claude to hear about all of his work and how he is representing students’ academic interests to improve the educational experience.

Why did you want to become a rep?
Well, I  have been a rep since my first year; not only did I believe it to be an amazing experience and an opportunity to build my skills, but a great way to be more involved in the department, especially one as interactive and dynamic as psychology. However, now, as a senior course rep, my reasons have changed; I find myself a lot more focused on wanting to represent the department, making sure that I can contribute to a change that matters. Be it through chairing meetings, being the point of contact for students and staff, or being a friendly face to all other course reps. It makes me incredibly happy to be part of something always striving to improve. I take a lot of pride in my role as a rep! 

What have you done so far this year, and what are your plans for next term in the rep role?

Compared to previous years, I have included informal meetings between our course reps and myself before our SSAMs to review feedback more cohesively. I wanted to implement this as a sort of buffer regarding feedback collection (which tended to be quite hectic in previous years); implementing an informal SSAM-style meeting before the actual thing provided many benefits. Not only did it allow our course reps to have a feel for what the meetings are like, but it also allowed me to collect feedback more cohesively from our reps in a more discussion-based manner. To lead onto another point, holding these types of meetings spurred the inclusion of a "collective" feedback section in our agenda; through discussion, there were a lot of realisations that all year groups shared similar concerns. This helped cut down meeting times while ensuring important points were still brought across. 

For next term, I hope to continue this trend whilst also looking to introduce a more collaborative way for reps to provide feedback, not only to provide a more streamlined process for them to put their feedback in one place but also for me to ensure I don't miss any of their points when creating the agenda. I frequently meet with our Director of Education in the department to discuss plans for improving our current system. I'll be looking to continue the implementation of soft deadlines for our reps when it comes to collecting and relaying feedback. I only hope to continue doing well in this role come the new year !

How do you see being a rep impacting your future?
I would say instrumentally, the skills you develop in this role are so useful- communication, teamwork, and learning to liaise between staff and students. It is an invaluable role from which you can gain some brilliant skills that will be useful in any future role. In terms of what I feel? This role has solidified my love and my passion for wanting to drive change, being able to be someone that people can count on and turn to for support is so fundamentally important to me. This role has given me that chance, I reckon the joy of being someone that people can count on will stay with me way into my future. 

What's the best thing about being a rep?

I feel like I've slightly answered this question in all the previous ones, but I would say the thing I love  most is the chance to make a difference. Not only do you get to represent your department by sharing the voices of your fellow students, but you're also someone the students can count on when it comes to representing them. Being able to be that support and that anchor for the students and staff in my department is such a positive feeling that I would struggle to express in words.